NEWARK, N.J. – Rustam Khabilov and Yancy Medeiros were off to a good start in the early moments of the first round, and then the injury bug struck, this time mid-fight.

While defending against a Khabilov takedown attempt, Medeiros appeared to injure his thumb in gruesome fashion, which forced referee Dan Miragliotta to call a stop to the bout at the 2:32 mark of Round 1 and give Khabilov the TKO victory.

The lightweight bout closed out the preliminary card of today’s UFC 159 event at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. It aired on FX following additional prelims on Facebook and ahead of a main card on pay-per-view.

In a way, it was the second straight fight Khabilov ended with a suplex. But this time, instead of slamming his opponent on his head, he was thwarted in the attempt by Medeiros, who blocked the move but paid the price when he put his hand down to stop his fall. Replays showed that the thumb was clearly injured, and seconds after Medeiros alerted Miragliotta of the injury, the bout was waved off.

“There isn’t much to say,” Khabilov said. “Like I’ve said my business is to throw him down, and it’s his business how he lands. Honestly, I walked out to the octagon to put on a good show. You saw what happened out there. I’m upset with the way it ended.”

Khabilov (16-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC), who clutched his mangled thumb after the fight, gets his second straight victory inside the octagon, following up his slam KO win over Vinc Pichel this past December. Medeiros (9-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) suffers his first career defeat due to the injury.

The Latest

Sure, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey ran through yet another opponent in less than a minute, but that wasn’t the only story that mattered at UFC 190. Relive the memorable moments from Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena.

Since the early days when the sport was anything but a mainstream endeavor, the MMA industry has thrived and survived through various websites, forums and, perhaps most importantly, social-media platforms.

In this week’s Trading Shots, Danny Downes and Ben Fowlkes look at Ronda Rousey’s 34-second victory over Bethe Correia at UFC 190 and try to put it into terms that capture the moment without getting swept away by it.

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

The man known for cranking submissions to the point of injury added eye-gouging to his repertoire. But is the controversy of Rousimar Palhares too essential to his bizarre, awful appeal for his employers to take any meaningful action against him?